TAMPA, FL.- The University of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum is pleased to premier Tampa's first solo exhibition by Austrian artist Werner Reiterer, Raw Loop. The exhibition is on view in the East Gallery, January 9 to March 7.

Is art allowed to make us laugh? In Raw Loop, Reiterer turns the world upside down and creates new rules in works that question our perceptions while playing with art's relationship to everyday reality. Through drawings, objects and installations he engages the viewer in a re-examination of everyday experience that makes us think and often smile.

Reiterer's works walk a fine line between sense and nonsense, exploiting art's close proximity to life as a means of challenging literal descriptions of reality. Testing the limits of visual comprehension, Reiterer asks us to be his accomplices and by enticing us to activate and 'finish' his works he is able to bring lightness to the task of confronting our inhibitions and opening our minds to new ideas.

Born in Graz, Reiterer studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna from 1984 to 1988. He has been featured in major museum and gallery exhibitions throughout Europe and is recognized as one of the leading artists of his generation. Reiterer has completed numerous public art commissions in Europe and the United States, notably in Louisville, Kentucky where his interactive chandelier is installed on Main Street, outside the Proof on Main restaurant. The artist lives and works in Vienna.

An artist talk and discussion with Werner Reiterer, exhibition curator Julien Robson (formerly of the Speed Art Museum in Louisville) and Noel Smith, Curator of Education for the Contemporary Art Museum, took place on January 9, in the College of Visual Performing Arts. The talk is available in Quicktime format on CAM's website at http://ira.usf.edu/media.html

Werner Reiterer: Raw Loop is organized and traveled by the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, Kentucky with support from the Austrian Bundeskanzleramt, Kultur Steiermark and the International Art Foundation.